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Ministers today announced they will allow the home-use of early medical abortion pills by the end of the year.

It means women seeking to end an early pregnancy before 10 weeks’ gestation will be able to take the second of the two required abortion pills at home.

At the moment women are required to take both pills at a clinic or hospital, between 24 and 48 hours apart, but there are concerns that the process can be traumatic because some women begin to miscarry before they get home.

But pro-life groups reacted with fury, saying the steps “trivialised” abortion and could see termination increasingly treated as a form of contraception. The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) vowed toattempt legal action to block the move.

The Government’s decision comes after Wales announced the same move in June, while Scotland made the Women to be given the right to take abortion pills at home change in 2017. Prof Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer for England, said: “This decision will increase choice for women and help ensure they receive safe and dignified care.”

The abortion pill is two separate medicines, mifepristone and misoprostol, which are administered separately.

Prof Lesley Regan, the president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), said the announcement “is hugely welcomed and a major step forward”.

“It will allow women to avoid distress and embarrassment of bleeding and pain during their journey home from an unnecessary second visit to a clinic or hospital.”